1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method whereby when editing a motion picture, loaded from a disk or a video camera, individual pieces of information of scenes can be displayed on an editing device, and to a display device for this purpose; and in particular, to a method for displaying material to be edited that facilitates the editing operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, the use of video devices, such as video cameras, that handle digital images has spread to the home. The editing of the images obtained with a digital camera is an easy task, and highly individualized stories can be prepared by employing devices that edit such motion pictures and change scene order while linking together only selected scenes.
A group of images for a scene, one of a number of image groups obtained by dividing a series of images at predetermined time intervals, is called a clip. A typical image (index) for each clip can be displayed on an editing device, and an editor can then edit scenes while viewing these images. However, since the length of a clip for a scene can not be ascertained only from the index, editing is sometimes difficult.
To resolve this problem, disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 7-79404 is a method, as is shown in FIG. 18, whereby the indexes of clips, which are expressed as three-dimensional rectangular parallelepipeds, are displayed on the front faces of the parallelepipeds, and the lengths of the clips are represented by the depths of the rectangular parallelepipeds.
Disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 7-79404 is a method, as is shown in FIG. 19, for reducing the indexes for clips in consonance with their lengths, and for displaying the resultant clips.
A conventional display device to provide such a display comprises, as is shown in FIG. 20, video reading means 1, for reading digital images supplied by a video camera or a disk; clip division means 2, for dividing a series of digital images into clips; clip division data storage means 4, for maintaining IN point and OUT point data for the obtained clips; index generation means 3, for generating indexes for the clips; clip length ratio calculation means 5, for calculating the ratios for the lengths of the individual clips; and index display means 6, for displaying indexes by employing data received from the index generation means 3 and the clip length ratio calculation means 5.
In this display device, when the video reading means 1 reads digital images from a video camera or a disk, the clip division means 2 divides the digital images into clips. The index generation means 3 generates typical images, which are used as indexes, using the first frames of the individual obtained clips and outputs the stationary images to the index display means 6.
The IN point and OUT point data for the clips are stored in the clip division data storage means 4. The clip length ratio calculation means 5 calculates the ratios for the lengths of the clips from the IN point and OUT point data, and outputs the ratio to the index display means 6. Upon receipt of the data from the index generation means 3 and the clip length ratio calculation means 5, the index display means 6 displays the indexes for the clips and the ratios for the lengths of the clips using the form shown in FIG. 18 or 19.
Using the display method in FIG. 18, however, it is difficult to visualize how clips are distributed and where they are located in a motion picture by using the ratios of the lengths of the clips to the total length of the movie. And according to the display method in FIG. 19, since in this case the size of an index is reduced, viewing a typical image is difficult.
In order to make the editing of motion pictures easy, it is important that there be displayed on an editing screen not only the index and the length of a clip, but also the contents of the images included in the clip, so that an individual performing the editing can easily understand this data and can select appropriate scenes for inclusion in the clip. According to the conventional display method, however, no consideration of such matters is taken.